


Cherry Pie Days

by applejwoos (kenmarcadeblues)



Category: The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baking, Cabin Fic, Christmas, Drinking, Everyone Is Gay, Friendship, Getting to Know Each Other, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Strangers to Lovers, fantasy elements all relating to sunwoo, maybe more like diet angst? anyway, takes place in canada!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:47:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28303299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenmarcadeblues/pseuds/applejwoos
Summary: salad days (plural noun) : a Shakespearean idiomatic expression meaning a youthful time, accompanied by the inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism, innocence, or indiscretion that one associates with a young person.cherry pie days (plural noun) : an idiomatic expression coined by Kevin indicating a time of sweetness, fruitiness, juiciness, willpower, passion, and treasured interconnectedness between individuals.In which Sunwoo, a raccoon shifter, goes after a human's food and comes face to face with the consequences - and a human named Kevin.
Relationships: Kim Sunwoo/Moon Hyungseo | Kevin, Moon Hyungseo | Kevin & Everyone
Comments: 9
Kudos: 49
Collections: TBZ Secret Santa Exchange 2020





	Cherry Pie Days

**Author's Note:**

  * For [charons_boat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/charons_boat/gifts).



> written for tbz secret santa fest
> 
> dear kat, i really hope you enjoy this! i want to thank you for your note in your form, it definitely made me feel more at ease. have a wonderful holiday season!!

Sunwoo had thought it was a good idea. After all, descending down a chimney is neither out of question nor out of range to those who have a raccoon body at their leisure.

But even raccoons can slip.

When one of Sunwoo’s claws had failed to find purchase in the brick, he tumbled down, down, down.

Now, soot-covered and aching amidst a pile of logs, he sees it had _not_ been a good idea. His whole left side is teeming with pinched nerves and crushed blood vessels. This isn’t worth it for the tantalizing smell he'd caught on the breeze. He's gotten to where it is, sure, but in such a state he can't even eat the damn thing—well, maybe it's _multiple_ things. The air is sugary, fruity, and kinda bready. His little omnivorous stomach is absolutely yearning for whatever it is.

This is torture in all ways. He doesn't know what to do.

There is nothing to do, he realizes sullenly, except wait for whoever lives in this _stupid, big, fancy cabin with a secure foundation and firmly shut windows and doors_ to come home and find him. And if they're good, they'll take him to animal control or something. If they're not good...

After a moment's consideration, Sunwoo's body morphs and grows. Unfortunately, so does his pain.

His human toes are scraping the inner wall of the fireplace now, the rest of him splaying out onto the living room floor. This cabin is nice _inside_ , too; in a minimalist-luxury kind of way.

In Sunwoo's experience, rich people aren't as compassionate to wild animals as they are to people—which is saying a lot—and he doesn't want to take any more risks today. He can deal with a hospital if it comes to that; anything but being thrown out into the snowy forest like a nothing but nuisance in someone’s day.

The throbbing of his body and the pulsing of tiny white lights encircling a heavily-adorned indoor tree lull him into a sleep of necessity.

*

“Oh my god!" Sunwoo stirs at the emergence of a loud, panicked voice. Suddenly, his body is being manhandled and a pair of hands are probing him, pressing certain spots and examining his limbs. He cries out in pain and forces his eyes open. "Oh! Hey, can you hear me?" A man is searching his face with soft eyes. Sunwoo feels relief at the man's aura—plus the fact that no parts of him are laying atop logs anymore—and manages a nod. "What’s your name?”

“Sunwoo.”

"When's your birthday?"

"April 12th, 2000."

The man's thin lips tug upwards in an almost-smile. He’s satisfied, but Sunwoo isn’t sure why. "Can you walk?" He stands and offers his arms down to Sunwoo.

And Sunwoo goes for it, he really does. 

But putting even the tiniest bit of weight on his left leg has him groaning and crumpling back to the floor, the man squaring his mouth at him in empathy.

“Okay...wait a sec,” the man says, and leaves. Sunwoo listens to the stairs creak. 

The man returns with wet wipes in hand. "I'm Kevin,” he says, pulling out two wipes from the pack and cleaning Sunwoo’s soot-covered feet. He’s either used to caring for injured people (and doesn’t trust Sunwoo to do a good job for himself) or desperately doesn’t want the interior of his car to get dirty. Either way, it’s a nice gesture, and yet Sunwoo’s instinct can’t let Kevin’s hands out of his sight. 

Sunwoo doesn't speak. He takes a wipe for his hands and tries not to curl his toes. 

"So...why are you in here?" Kevin tries again after moving to Sunwoo’s neck.

Coolness rushing over Sunwoo’s Adam’s apple spreads into a full-body shiver. A lie is jolted from his brain. “I live close by and I got dared to, uh. Yeah.”

“The...chimney?”

“I do this kinda thing a lot.” Kevin quirks his eyebrows at this, but Sunwoo can't elaborate.

What’s he supposed to say? This is a human—one without the funny little (cosmically-bestowed) tricks of a _shifter_ , so he won't understand. But he doesn't need to, anyway. Sunwoo is going to recover and leave Kevin’s life as soon as he’d fallen into it.

Suddenly, a wipe caresses his cheek and he finds that Kevin is staring him down. Or at least, staring down the grime stuck to him. Kevin’s eyes travel all around his face, like two nature-loving humans who carefully take in every sight of their adventure. And for a second, Sunwoo can do nothing but be a meadow warming in the sun, waiting to be walked through. 

When Sunwoo decides to level the playing field and stare back, he soaks up eyes that are a deep brown, like his own, and still as soft as before; chin-length black hair that frames sharp cheekbones and a dainty chin; and lips that sit small and quaint. 

_Rich and beautiful_ , he observes. _Some are just born lucky, aren’t they?_

Then Kevin tugs at his pants while wearing a sheepish look. 

Sunwoo simply takes the hint and nods, managing to squirm out of them with enough help. He’s not particularly attached to the idea of wearing clothing all the time, even though humans have taboos about being naked. It _is_ good for warmth, though, when one doesn’t have fur to rely on—he’ll give them that. 

“You’re probably—” Kevin starts to say, right as Sunwoo pulls his longsleeve over his head with a groan. He only gets it halfway off before Kevin gives it a final yank and sets his head free. “Probably not seriously injured, y’know.”

Sunwoo chucks his shirt away using his right hand and smiles for the first time since falling down the chimney. “Awesome!”

“You should still go to the hospital to be safe, though. I used to be a lifeguard, so I do know a thing or two, but I’m no medical professional.”

His smile fades. _But that’s what you’ve got going for you!_ Sunwoo whines silently. “I don’t have health insurance,” he counters instead.

It's not a lie, because Sunwoo doesn't live in human society and would have to shift into a raccoon and literally run out the hospital doors in lieu of paying bills. Which, in fact, is seen as a perfectly logical course of action among his people.

But other than avoiding the trouble of human medical professionals and strange machines, the honest reason he’d rather stay in this stupid, big, fancy cabin is the possibility of eating whatever it is he’s been smelling; to maybe redeem his not-so-good idea.

Of course he gets argued with, but the persuasions stop coming as soon as he pulls the (exaggerated, but partially true) ‘fear of doctors’ card. Predictably, Kevin huffs, having nothing more to say. "Well. Then I guess I'm taking you in."

Unpredictably, Sunwoo has no time to process his triumph because the next thing he knows, he's being lifted bridal-style and carried towards the stairs. 

Pressed up against Kevin’s red sweater, Sunwoo can feel his uneven breaths. "Heavier than I look, huh?” 

There’s a hallway with a row of five doors, and they enter the one at the far end.

“Uh, kinda.”

"My bad for being so full of muscles,” Sunwoo quips as Kevin gingerly lowers him onto a human bed. Despite his lingering pain, he feels like royalty, the fluffy blue blanket beneath him a throne. Being carried by a human _as a human_ is much better than being carried as a raccoon, he notes. 

Kevin chances an actual smile, and then quickly utters the unexpected. "Not like you can use most of ‘em right now.”

Sunwoo’s not offended. In fact, he wants to laugh aloud in surprise and amusement at the sudden sass. Instead of laughing, though, he pouts and lowers his brows. 

The reaction Kevin has when his own words dawn on him and Sunwoo’s fake-sad face fills his gaze is priceless. “Oh, my god, I’m so sorry!” he exclaims, eyes widened in horror. “That was mean. I don’t know you; I-I didn’t mean that, it was thoughtless. Please forgive me.”

Sunwoo cracks a grin. “Mm. Alright.”

Frazzled at the fake-out, Kevin shakes his head and sends his bouncy hair into a frenzy. “You,” he says, chuckling low while wagging a finger. He adds nothing else. 

And Sunwoo laughs at him then, but it hurts.

*

Sunwoo does end up getting to eat the mysterious, nose-tantalizing sweet thing—after drinking water, taking painkillers, and eating a plate of savory food (which he nearly sticks his fingers into before remembering he’s _a human in the presence of another human_ ). It’s ‘cherry pie’; alternate name: utopia for the taste buds. Who knew cherries could be quite this sugary? Now that he thinks about it, it’s strange the things raccoon shifters appropriate from humans and the things they don’t. They have wet wipes and radios but not phones and cherry pie. Shifters clearly dropped the ball here.

When voices drift up to Sunwoo’s ears from downstairs, he tenses up on instinct. Kevin explains that some friends are going to be staying here for a few days. 

“What for?”

“Oh, just the holidays.”

“Which ones?”

“We celebrate Christmas, personally.” 

“Ah, right,” Sunwoo says with a nod. He knows that one. It’s the one based on the worship ‘Santa’, a deity that bestows gifts to children if they’re good and set out offerings to him on a certain night. And there’s another guy, ‘Jesus’, except Sunwoo’s not so sure how he fits into the narrative.

Kevin returns to his friends. Sunwoo entertains himself by counting the lines in the ceiling and staring out the window. Snow is piling onto the earth in a beautiful frenzy, and he wishes he could tunnel through it all and go home. 

Sometime after sunset, Kevin appears in the doorway and calls to Sunwoo softly. “My friend Chanhee is next door, so just yell if you need something and he’ll probably get me to do it. I’ll be on the couch.”

_Oh._

“This’s your bed?”

“Yeah, why?”

A rich man is giving up his bed for a stranger that he thinks _tried to break into his house_. 

All day, Sunwoo could sense the positivity and openness projected by Kevin’s aura, but this is honestly blowing past any expectations he’d had. He would take a couch any day of the week, full wellness or not. His normal bed is a pile of forest debris, for crying out loud; not that Kevin would know.

_How can he care genuinely for someone like me?_

He almost feels bad about having to make up a lie, even if the truth would be too hard to swallow.

“Well then,” Kevin says, startling Sunwoo out of his thoughts. “Goodnight.”

“Ah, yeah. ‘Night.”

*

In the morning, Sunwoo is woken up by his body complaining to him about something other than pain. 

As it turns out, he hasn't relieved himself since coming here. Luckily, Kevin's bedroom is so damn _big and fancy_ that there's a bathroom in it.

Since being low and horizontal to the ground means less gravity, he shifts for the way there. Walking as an injured raccoon is a slow struggle, especially on the bathroom's overly-smooth floor. As a human, however, he’s capable of even less.

At the toilet, he takes human form again.

The bedroom door hinges squeak just as he's about to shift so he can head back to the bed.

  
  


Kevin finds his bedroom empty. "Sunwoo?"

No matter how much he thinks it over, there's _no way in hell_ Sunwoo could've gotten in through the chimney. The chimney isn't giant; its diameter is about a foot around.

A normal sized chimney. It's not humanly possible to be in there. It doesn't add up. _But the soot..._

For a second, Kevin believes that Sunwoo has escaped exactly as he'd broken in: under strange circumstances.

Until: "In here."

"Are you okay?" he asks the bathroom door. No answer. "Can I come in?"

"Sure..."

The sight of Sunwoo in nothing but underwear kneeling with his weight shifted leftward and bruising visible on his arms and legs immediately fills Kevin with guilt. Sunwoo needs crutches, or even a wheelchair. But this rented cabin isn't a medical facility; Sunwoo had chosen this for himself. Sunwoo, in the first place, was the one who'd put his body on the line (for reasons Kevin still isn't clear on!) and was now paying dearly for it.

And yet. 

"You're up," Kevin comments, forcing peppiness he doesn't feel. "And crawling."

Sunwoo grabs at Kevin's jeans and peers up at him. "Sorry, but...please carry me again?" he asks. Kevin can't tell whether he's pouting as he speaks or if his lips are simply fuller in the morning.

It has no weight on Kevin's conscience, really. Of course Kevin is going to carry him! What kind of evil person wouldn't?

A strong wave of deja vu hits as he sets Sunwoo carefully onto the bed. Between now and yesterday, it feels as if his arms are starting to get back their ‘lifeguard tone’. Perhaps Sunwoo is divine intervention telling him to work out more. "Next time let me help you, okay?"

Sunwoo sighs. "You're far away, though. Do you really want me to yell _that_ loud?"

"Fair point." There's no good time to harbor some dude who injured himself trying to do _who knows what_ to your holiday rental—but it’s especially terrible while hosting six of your closest friends for Christmas.

Then a lightbulb goes off in his brain. "Wait. Why don't you just come with me? Then you can literally just lean over—yeah, that works, right?" He's a genius. "It's lonely and boring in here, anyway."

Sunwoo’s agreement brings light to Kevin’s face, but inside he's wondering what the hell Sunwoo is going to wear. His upper half should be fine in most of Kevin's shirts, but his lower half is a problem. He has legs that are both shorter and thicker than Kevin's.

Jacob wouldn't say no to giving up a pair of pants for someone in need, would he?

*

_“Cock-a-doodle do!”_ Jaehyun crows. Chanhee laughs a little too hard in Kevin’s left ear at this enthusiastic narration. They both got killed off early on, so the game is now their personal reality show. “Another day has dawned upon this cursed town!” Changmin, Jacob, Juyeon, and Sunwoo raise their heads and open their eyes. “Our dear Juyeon got pushed into the lake and froze to death last night!”

Juyeon cups his face in his hands. _“No! Why!”_ Sangyeon sighs and pulls him back into the ‘ghost corner’ where he, Kevin, and Chanhee are clustered.

_A reality show that’s hair-pull worthy._

“Okay, discuss,” Jaehyun tells the three remaining players. “Today’s accusation is of utmost importance. Do or die, people!”

Sunwoo turns to Changmin and tuts as if disappointed in what he himself has to say. “I think it might be Jacob."

"Excuse me?" Jacob says, crossing his arms. "What'd I even do?"

"You were looking at Juyeon a lot during the last 'day'."

"Okay, and? I just noticed he looks good today, is that a crime?"

"He looks good _everyday_ ," Changmin inputs unhelpfully.

"To _you_ ," Jacob retorts.

"Well, you've also been acting weird since the start of the game," Sunwoo says.

"That's because you're here, and I don't know you. Nothing against you, just..." Jacob trails off while playing with his knees, then speaks up again. "Changmin, you were on my right, weren't you?"

Changmin hums affirmatively. "Haven't moved much. Why?"

Jacob squints at him. "Why were you moving a lot last 'night'?"

Sunwoo's eyebrows shoot up his forehead. "Wait...I felt that, too."

"I was excited about the game, that's all," Changmin says with an eye-roll. "It's really fun!"

"Excited because you're gonna win?" Jacob pushes.

"No!" Changmin hisses. "No, I don't care about winning!" He makes a frustrated noise when Jacob and Sunwoo give each other a _look._ "I mean—because I'm _not_ the mafia! I care whether the game is fun, not about who wins and loses!"

"Alright, alright, everyone shut up,” Jaehyun cuts in. “Voting time!"

Sunwoo points at Changmin. And although hesitant, Jacob does the same.

_Oh my god._

Flustered and pointing at Sunwoo, Changmin begs, "Jacob, please. Please, no." But Jacob simply shrugs at him.

Jaehyun clears his throat. "Bye, Changmin. Last words?"

"No," Changmin sulks.

_Sunwoo, you little shit,_ Kevin thinks as he curls into Chanhee, anticipating the finale of the flawless performance in front of him. _You did it._

He was worried (and surprised!) when he became the first resident of the ‘ghost corner’ and saw that Sunwoo had been chosen as the mafia in his first ever game. He knew Jaehyun probably wanted to give the newbie some experience, which was fair. They could always play again right afterwards. 

But by the expressions Jaehyun wore throughout the 'night time', he hadn't expected the game to even approach this point. Kevin hadn't, either, even though he watched Sunwoo’s every move other than deciding to kill him. The youngest person in the cabin was cunning, mischievous, and not too shabby at acting (though Kevin had already seen some of that in action). 

"Alright, well," Jaehyun says flatly, lips in a line. "The mafia wins."

The room explodes into screams of varying emotional content. Changmin is flailing on the floor chanting, 'I told you so!' while Jacob stares at Sunwoo with his lips in an 'o'.

“How are you so good?” Sangyeon questions Sunwoo, admiration rolling off him in waves.

“Don’t lie—you _have_ played before, haven’t you?” Changmin accuses.

“No, no,” Sunwoo insists, waving his hands in glee, “I really haven’t. Promise.” He pauses thoughtfully. “I guess denying responsibility for my actions just comes naturally to me.”

Of course Chanhee loses it; but this time, everyone else immediately follows suit.

“That’s funny?” Sunwoo asks amongst the hysterics. He’s grinning big, practically glowing. He has a lot of teeth, but they’re small; that, or Kevin’s been hanging around Jacob and Changmin for too long. “I was serious, for once.”

“You’re very honest, Sunwoo,” Kevin informs him with a chuckle. “It’s cute.” 

And so the first time Sunwoo blushes in front of him isn’t when Kevin helps him take off his pants, or when Kevin walks in on him near-naked on the bathroom floor. It’s when he’s wearing a ramshackle pairing of Jacob’s pants and one of Kevin’s oversized sweaters and basking in the attention in a living room full of people. 

A spark lights in Kevin’s chest. 

He quickly stamps it out. 

*

The next day is filled with winter strolling, snow fights, board games, and movies. Kevin is so preoccupied that he forgets all about the spark—even when Sunwoo inhales cherry pie and drowns him in compliments.

Until that night, when it lights again.

One minute he’d been marathoning Home Alone with everyone else; the next, he’s waking up on the couch with Sunwoo as his only company. 

And where is Sunwoo? Dozing away on his lap. 

The weight of his head is...nice. Kind of. If Kevin doesn’t shove him off and simply goes back to sleep, what difference does it make? And if Sunwoo’s sleep-smushed face on his thighs seems cute to him, does it have to mean anything?

Kevin chases unconsciousness and tries not to dwell on it. 

***

It's Sunwoo's fourth day at Kevin's _big, fancy cabin_ and the sun has dipped out of sight. He, Kevin, and Kevin's six friends from the city are huddled around the fire pit on the patio. The alcohol in his red plastic cup is bitter and strong in ways Sunwoo has only encountered when unwisely making the decision to taste hand sanitizer.

Suddenly, Kevin stands from his chair. “A toast,” he announces, gaze ethereal and commanding for a moment in the flickering orange firelight. “To our cherry pie days!”

Before Sunwoo can bump his cup with Juyeon, Chanhee freezes with his cup against Sangyeon's and bursts, “Hold on. What does that mean? I don't get what I'm clinking to.”

Sunwoo doesn't either, actually; he naturally assumed that it was on him and not Kevin.

“'Cherry pie days' are what we’re having right now," Kevin explains vaguely. Chanhee blinks at him. So does Sunwoo. "I just made it up, help me make it a thing.”

“Ah, like Shakespeare’s ‘salad days’?” Chanhee is surely making a reference, and Sunwoo doesn't get it. But he doesn't ask, in case it'd make him look too out of touch.

Kevin shoots a finger-gun at Chanhee. "Ya got it."

“'What do you want 'cherry pie days' to mean, then?” Changmin questions. "Is it the same as 'salad days' or different?"

“It means this time in our lives is _sweet_ —right, Kev?” Sangyeon says confidently, wrapping Chanhee in his embrace and almost spilling both their drinks in the process. Chanhee is less than thrilled, yet makes no move to escape.

Jaehyun scoffs and flicks his wrist. “No, it’s because it’s _fruity_!”

“Wrong, it’s actually more about the _juiciness_ ," Jacob asserts, shifting in his chair so he can stick out his ass.

“It can be all those things," Kevin proclaims. "Plus the redness of our passion and willpower, and the way our lives are all able to intertwine so nicely, like the lattice of the crust.”

Jacob nods approvingly. "I like it, but I need you to know that you're a huge dork."

"I like it and _don't_ think you're a huge dork," Juyeon counters.

Sunwoo has the urge to contribute, too. He thinks about how he can sense Kevin’s inner entanglement; about how there’s a lot going on inside this human seemingly at all times. What comes out is a small: "I think your brain works in a cool way.”

If only he could shift into a raccoon and run into the forest with no consequences.

But that fantasy leaves him as soon as Kevin pats his back and chuckles a ‘thank you’. 

Kevin then raises his cup once again. "To our cherry pie days! May we savor every bit of them!"

Everyone clashes their cups with one another vigorously, and Sunwoo feels warm inside where the fire can’t reach.

  
  


By the time everyone agrees to call it a night, Sunwoo’s eyes are barely open. Out of habit and not much thought, Kevin puts one arm under Sunwoo’s leg, one under his back, and scoops him up. 

“Kevin,” Sunwoo drawls, lips pouty, “I can walk now.” But when Kevin apologizes and starts to lower him, he pipes up again immediately. “Wait, wait—I was just telling you in case you forgot.” Kevin freezes. “Don’t put me down, please,” Sunwoo says quietly, snuggling his head against Kevin’s shoulder.

Kevin only hopes that Sunwoo can’t hear his heart rate picking up. “You really like being carried, huh?” he asks as they ascend the stairs.

Sunwoo hums. “Makes me feel like a princess.”

“Does that make me your servant?” Kevin teases.

“No, no. You’re uh...the princess of a rival kingdom that visits and sweeps me off my feet.”

Sunwoo’s drunk. 

Sunwoo’s drunk, Kevin’s stupid, and the spark in Kevin’s chest is catching fire and melting his brain. 

“Oh,” he manages to breathe out, and plops Sunwoo onto the bed.

When Sunwoo offers to share the bed with Kevin, citing ‘I feel comfortable with you’ as the reason, Kevin politely declines and all but runs down to the living room.

*

Sunwoo walks down the stairs to a formidable hill of presents under the indoor tree and seven lively human auras. It's Christmas morning, but just like on the previous normal days, he's the last to wake. He gets embarrassed when they tell him he's the reason no gifts have been opened yet, but Kevin assures him that it's because he's _part of the household_ and couldn't be left out.

"The more the merrier," Sangyeon says.

"Exactly," Jaehyun agrees. "I love having one more witness to my superior gifting skills." At that, Jacob hits him with the little bell that's attached to his red pointy hat.

Sunwoo laughs. "Great to be here, then. Although I don’t have anything for you guys, I just wanna say that it’s been really nice. See, I’ve never really, uh, hung out with…” _A group of humans._ “...people from outside my neighborhood.”

"Aw!" Changmin coos. "In that case, it's been an honor and hopefully I've been good representation."

Juyeon shakes his head. "I doubt it." Before anyone can follow that up, he suddenly perks up and turns to Sunwoo. "Hey, there's actually something you can give me right now."

“Really?” Sunwoo asks, interested.

"Yes." Juyeon opens his arms and smiles unabashedly, his eyes nearly ceasing to exist. “A hug.” Everyone apparently pretends not to have heard this cheesy line except Kevin, who makes gagging noises, and Jacob, who boos loudly.

Sunwoo rolls his eyes. “That was bad,” he informs, but a beat later he’s scooting over into Juyeon’s embrace. It makes him feel small, though not in a bad way.

Most of the presents are either thoughtful or useful, and definitely appropriate for each recipient. However, there is one that truly vexes him: the collection of horror movie dvds that Chanhee gives a thoroughly thrilled, very thankful Changmin. "He loves scary stuff," Chanhee explains.

_Maybe Juyeon was right._ Sunwoo turns to Changmin and sighs. "You'd _never_ survive in the wild."

*

Sunwoo is the last to leave, since the heavy morning snowfall doesn’t let up until around two in the afternoon and the weirdo insists on walking home even though Kevin has a perfectly good car with brand new snow tires on it.

So many things about Sunwoo are...weird. Why was he barefoot when Kevin found him? Why doesn’t he have a cellphone, or a wallet, or anything on him at all? Why did he never ask to call family or friends? How does he sleep for so long and still have dark circles under his eyes? 

From day one, he’s had Kevin perplexed. But the unanswered questions that may surround a person are small matters compared to the content of one’s character. And Sunwoo? Well, no doubt he’s been a strain on Kevin’s resources, time, and energy—but he’s also been genuinely good company. He was a burden, but at the same time he wasn’t. 

_Knowing how and why you tried to break in would be nice, though._

“You know...” Kevin starts, his voice strange and small as he leans on the front doorway. He barely recognizes it as himself. “You’re welcome to come visit, if you’re around. I’ll be here for another week and a half.”

“Do you want me to?”

  
  


“Yeah. I’d like that.”

“Alright, then.” Sunwoo tells himself it's the sudden growth of a moral obligation, a need to repay someone who has shown more kindness than warranted, that makes him say, “I’ll be back.”

***

As Kevin sets out most of the ingredients, Sunwoo is leaning on the counter and transferring his weight from foot to foot in anticipation. 

Kevin watches him for a moment, intrigued. “I’ve never seen anyone so hyped about baking pie before.”

Sunwoo glances away shyly. “That’s because it’s not just pie. Cherry pie is sacred to me.”

“Why do you like it so much?” Kevin asks, half-focused on Sunwoo and half-focused on the blob of pie crust as he starts to roll it out. Apparently Kevin makes this crust in bulk because he always ends up wanting to bake a bunch of pies during the winter. And what he doesn’t use, he gives to anyone who’s interested. “If it’s explainable at all, I guess.”

“Well,” Sunwoo enunciates before clearing his throat and lifting his chin, “it’s sweet, fruity, juicy, passionate, and the stuff on top reminds me of how our lives—”

“Enough,” Kevin says, elbowing a smug Sunwoo’s side. “Get to work.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Can you pit the cherries?” 

“Yeah! How’d you know that’s what I’m good at?”

Unfortunately, his human hands fall way short of what he’s capable of with claws. 

The bowl of cherries soon becomes a bowl of cherry pieces, and they are not all the same size. Fat, blunt, human fingers are just not deft enough for this kind of thing. 

Kevin’s satisfied with it, however, and tells him to add the dry ingredient mixture. 

The monotonous routine of mixing paired with the intense expression on Kevin’s focused face as he cuts the remaining pie crust into strips gives Sunwoo an impulse. And who is he to ignore it? “Uh oh, I got cherry juice on my lips!”

_“That’s ‘cause ya put it there,”_ Kevin sing-songs, unimpressed. 

_No fun._ “So should I just leave it here?”

“Yeah, it’ll soak in. Natural lip tint.”

Sunwoo frowns. He sticks a finger into the bag of flour and, without breaking eye contact, spreads some over his sticky lips. “Uh oh, I got _flour_ on my lips!”

Kevin looks back down at his cutting board. “Am I supposed to do something about that?”

“Yeah, you have to get it off.”

With a resigned reluctance, Kevin pauses his task and tries to comply with the request—first with a paper towel, then with his finger—but neither is what Sunwoo wants. 

He points to his lips and pouts. Kevin just blinks at him. “What the hell other option is there, Sunwoo?” he exclaims in frustration. “I can’t read your mind, just—”

Sunwoo locks eyes with him and lays his hands on his shoulders. “Kevin. Use your lips. Kiss me.”

_“You,”_ Kevin says pointedly. His expression of shock soon morphs into a grin—one that Sunwoo can feel against his own as Kevin finally complies with his request.

That night, full with freshly baked cherry pie, they both sleep in Kevin’s bed. And if Kevin minds that Sunwoo moves closer to him, he does a terrible job of showing it.

***

Sunwoo is startled from an afternoon doze by a harsh voice yelling at him: “Shoo! Shoo!” 

Upon opening his eyes, he discovers Kevin glaring at him. When Sunwoo doesn’t move, Kevin disappears into his closet and resurfaces with a broom. “Shoo, _out!_ ” 

Right now, Kevin’s aura is something he’s never seen it become: _hostile._

He doesn’t understand what’s happening, or why Kevin looks like some sort of giant in his vision even though Kevin isn’t a very big man. 

_Oh no. Oh, shit. I’m a fucking raccoon._

Sunwoo hadn’t meant to shift in his sleep. It happens without him knowing, though not on a regular basis by any means.

The thing is, it isn’t exactly...regulatable. He’s come to realize, after getting older, that his spirit tends to lose a bit of its discipline when feeling completely content and at ease.

There’s nothing Sunwoo’s frazzled mind can do other than tell his four recovered legs to move, little claws scratching up the carpet and rugs as he runs out of the room and down the stairs while Kevin chases him. 

This is a nightmare.

Once he’s been herded to the patio door, Kevin slides it open and uses the broom to force him out.

  
  


Instead of fleeing, the raccoon turns back to face Kevin. He watches in awe as it morphs, growing tall and upright, extending its limbs, and losing its fur. 

As his brain grapples with the impossibility of what he just witnessed, he looks into the now-human’s face. 

His heart drops to his feet. 

It’s Sunwoo who is staring at him, eyes overflowing with tears. 

Kevin flings open the door and steps outside. “Sunwoo,” he gulps out. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” He approaches slowly, and Sunwoo doesn’t back away. Once they’re only a few steps apart, Sunwoo throws himself at Kevin and is pulled into a hug. 

He curls into Kevin’s sweater, and about half a minute goes by in which Kevin does nothing but rub his shaking back as he cries. Even when he was badly bruised and aching in all sorts of places, he has never seemed more frail and helpless to Kevin as he does now. 

Sunwoo sucks in a wet breath. “I know you’re sorry. I can feel it, but _—why’d you do that?”_ He pushes back on Kevin’s secure grip and puts a bit of distance between them. “You weren’t joking at all. You _m-meant_ it.”

“I didn’t know it was you. Never would’ve known—I wish you would’ve told me, but it’s okay. I can understand.” Kevin’s still processing the fact that Sunwoo _can become an animal_ , and he has no idea what Sunwoo _is_ , but the one thing he does know is that Sunwoo is still Sunwoo, no matter what. “I care about you, and I like you. I want to understand you.” He gulps. “I won’t react that way again, promise. I don’t hate raccoons.”

“You don’t?” Sunwoo asks, using his sleeve to wipe his face. 

“Not at all. But coming home to an _apparently_ wild one in your bed isn’t great,” Kevin discloses. “I mean, I’ve watched documentaries which say raccoons are pretty clean, but...the standards for cleanliness are different, in some ways, you know?” He sighs. “And my friend Eric has a thing with _being clean_ , so I guess his ‘animals are nasty’ propaganda kinda got to me. Now, if the raccoon was a pet, it’d be different. It’d be clean and vaccinated, so I wouldn’t care much. But if it’s _you_ ...well, then it’s _super_ different.”

Sunwoo wrings his hands together. “To be honest, I...am a wild raccoon. And I’m not vaccinated.”

“Can I change that?”

“Which part?”

“The vaccination part.” Kevin pauses mysteriously. “I like you wild; don’t change,” he groans suggestively. 

Sunwoo chances a smile. “Well good, because that’s why I yearned so hard for your cherry pie that I climbed into your chimney and didn’t think much about the possible consequences.” 

“You _what?”_

“Your cherry pie. I smelled it, I wanted it, I fell.” Sunwoo tuts. “Now I’ve got _some human_ that kisses me.”

Kevin presses his lips onto Sunwoo’s forehead. “I sure do.”

*

The future is uncertain for every living being, and more so for a raccoon-shifter slinking around a human dominated world. But with any luck, if Kevin has any say in it, there will be many more cherry pie days to come.


End file.
